Best & Worst of 2013: Seattle's Memorable Social Media Moments

AWKWARD MOMENTS IN SOCIAL MEDIACoffee with a Side of Snark: Local barista Matt Watson discovers nothing on the Interwebz can ever truly be anonymous when Bitter Barista, his secret satirical (and oft mean-spirited) blog that poked fun at patrons and his boss at Georgetown’s All City Coffee, was outed by a rival coffee blog. Watson was fired from his coffee-slinging gig, but experienced a brief 15 minutes of fame when media outlets such as Good Morning America and Gawker got wind of his story. He also snagged a deal for—natch—a coffee-table book. A few of his choice barbs: “I would remember your usual drink if you were a more memorable person.” “I like to use a lot of big words when I tweet, that way if my boss ever finds my twitter account, he won’t understand any of it.”

Mess Hall: After several scone-eating children leave a crumby mess on the floor at Rainy Days Caffe in Lake Stevens, owner Lorraine MacDuff takes to Facebook and posts a photo along with this comment: “A couple of ladies came in today and this is the mess their children made.” Post goes viral; hundreds are offended; MacDuff deletes post. Judge Judy: Local vlogger Judy Travis amasses more than 200 million views by putting the tedium of her everyday life under the video microscope on two YouTube channels, It’s Judy’s Life and It’s Judy Time, and interacts with fans at Seattle’s first-ever VloggerFair in June. We only managed to make it through only 20 seconds of a 14-minute-long episode of It’s Judy’s Life, so perhaps we’re not the target audience?

TWITTER ACCOUNTS WE LOVE

@BerthaDigsSR99The one and only tunnel-digging machine Bertha has her own Twitter account to relay facts and funnies during her subterranean trek. Sample tweet: “Crews are either installing ventilation or fixing the plumbing for a very large sink.” @SeattlePDSeattle Police opt for a humorous (yet informative!), almost Onion–esque approach to tweeting about area crime, helmed by former Stranger crime reporter Jonah Spangenthal-Lee. Sample tweet: “Man flies into rage after being asked to pay for third tub of ranch dip…Suspect possibly headed for @HVRanch [Hidden Valley Ranch]” @MacklemoreThe rapper extraordinaire and hometown hero has almost 2 million followers. Sample tweet: “2 am. I wanted popcorn. The Front desk dude said he do it for me. Burnt the popcorn. Set off fire alarm. Ho...”@JinkxMonsoonSeattle magazine’s 2013 Spotlight Award–winning drag queen and winner of season five of RuPaul’s Drag Race tweets on twerking, drag and the occasional daily musing: “Drag Queens and Gay Porn Stars go together like Peanut Butter and Jelly.”@BeerblogIn between publishing our own beer feature stories, we chug down the ins and outs of the local beer scene as told by brewski expert and Seattle mag contributor Kendall Jones. Sample tweet: “1st taste. Holy mother of sweet baby jeebus! @BrewDogs”

Best Public Service Twitter Account: @GetYourBikeBackLost wheels? The Seattle Police Department launched this handle to help reunite lost bikes with their owners.

In MemoriamBy Bond HubermanNearly a year after his suicide, fans of Seattle rapper Freddy E are still posting new comments on his “JerkTV” videos almost daily. They write that they miss him, they want to hear his laugh and they hope he is in a better place. In more than 150 videos he posted to his popular YouTube channel (it had more than 50,000 subscribers before he died and has more than tripled since), Freddy E spoke, rapped and recorded humorous rants about everything from declaring a moratorium on “YOLO” to endorsing Obama. Twitter was also his microphone: “I’m sorry” were the last words Freddy E posted the night he died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. He was 22.

Photo Sharing’Twas the year of sharing (oversharing?) photos and videos via Instagram, Twitter and Facebook—and what people were posting was as telling as who posted.